Built-in electrical household appliances or those electrical household appliances that are lodged within custom-made furniture units are now particularly appreciated for the beauty that they give to the interior of a given environment.
In this technical scope, two types of construction are known for built-in electrical household appliances. In both types, it is provided that the household appliance is built in to a furniture unit intended for it, within a housing extended between two lateral walls, opposite each other, and between a back wall perpendicular to the two lateral walls and a front opening opposite the back wall.
A first type, known by the name “door-on-door”, provides that the front opening of the furniture unit is not closed by a door secured to the same furniture unit but rather that the household appliance comprises a front door equipped with anchor brackets for one or more panels having a desired aesthetic appearance, typically the same appearance as the furniture unit into which the household appliance is installed. Basically, in this type the unit door is directly anchored to the door of the household appliance and is attached to it, hence the name “door-on-door”.
According to this first type, since the furniture unit lacks the front unit door and therefore hinges for opening and closing this unit door (which would have to be installed on one of the two inner side walls of the furniture unit), the entire inner space between the two lateral walls can be used for housing the appliance. Consequently, the width of the appliance may be equal to the distance between said walls, less a given quantity, necessary to ensure a minimum clearance between the appliance and the lateral walls, in order to facilitate the insertion of the household appliance in the housing. Typically, for built-in furniture with a door of a nominal width equal to 600 mm a housing width equal to 560 mm is provided in which a household appliance with a width of 556 mm is installed, as denoted in FIG. 1.
According to this first type of construction, the hinges of the door of the household appliance must ensure the correct opening and closing of the appliance without any interference with the other furniture units next to it, and the correct alignment with the door closed with the panels anchored to the appliance door with the door of any other furniture unit next to the one that holds the household appliance. To ensure this coupling that is necessary in the presence of adjacent furniture units for aesthetic reasons, small distances between the front doors of the units, the hinges of the appliance door must also allow the translation to the outside of the door, in addition to the rotation. The major disadvantages of this first type are the cost of these hinges, the need for a system of reinforcements on the furniture unit to install said hinges and the relative complexity of the installation operation of the appliance in the kitchen furniture unit.
A second type of construction for built in appliances is known which is called “sliding”, which provides that the front opening of the furniture unit has a front unit door with closure hinged to the furniture unit with a hinge system for furniture units applied to one of the lateral surfaces. The door of the appliance is attached with a sliding coupling to the unit door of the furniture unit to be pulled in opening and closing, allowing opening and closing of the appliance at the same time that the unit door of the furniture unit is opened and closed by the user. In this second type, hinges provided on the door of the furniture unit are constructively simpler and less robust than the hinges provided on the “door-on-door” type of appliances that must support the weight of both doors. For this reason, the total cost of the “sliding” type of hinges of appliances is less than the “door-on-door” type and the system for installing the appliance in the furniture unit is simpler. One of the drawbacks of this solution is the presence of the hinges on the unit door that limit the usable space for housing the appliance. In particular, for built-in furniture units with a nominal width of 600 mm, a housing width equal to 560 mm is provided in which an appliance with a width of 540 mm can be installed, as shown in FIG. 2.